Beaten expectations
by Izumi1909
Summary: On one hand, Emil's choice of spouse isn't exactly what they expected. On the the other, they are so grateful that he came back from the Silent World expedition alive that they want to support him in every single life decision he makes. But such impulsive marriages quickly fall apart, so all they have to do is wait for it to end on its own. Right?


**Note:** This is a sequel to another fanfic ( _Trial Of Fire_ , Aliax, Archive of Our Own) that was written long before Tuuri was bitten. Because of that, I cherry-picked what elements of canon did and did not happen. Please note that this is in the point of view of a pair that has been written as having some degree of homophobia in plenty of other fics, not mine.

 **Beaten expectations**

They wanted Emil to marry a proper, well-educated Swedish woman of good breeding. They had sworn to support him in every decision he made after he had somehow made it back from that expedition in the Silent World alive. Emil had put that oath to test quite quickly when he told him he was going to get married. With one of his male crewmates from the expedition. Both Torolf and Helga's minds had found the same way out of this: let Emil marry this Lalli, wait for it to fall apart on its own as at least one of them realized it was a youth-induced mistake, be there to emotionally support Emil through the ordeal, and later help him find a proper wife. But new tests of that oath just kept coming. Why, having the wedding and reception in one of the woody patches within the town walls, here in Östersund, during one of the warmer months of spring was a great idea! Of course, they could have the gone-crazy Torbjörn, Siv and their children over for a few days. In all honesty, they feared the consequences that Torbjörn starting to believe in magic could have on his family, and they could be giving Siv a discreet opportunity to get herself and the children out of this insanity for all they knew. Technically, Emil was in the same situation, but at least it was from being smitten enough with someone who thought he was a mage that he was going along with his delusion. This was going to be another issue to deal with once this ridiculous marriage would be over.

The wedding was happening so soon after the expedition that it was giving Lalli just enough time to wrap things up back in Finland beforehand. That had enabled Torolf and Helga to not set eyes on him or any member of his family before the wedding itself. The grooms had fortunately elected to keep the guest list short. There had been exactly three ways of qualifying for an invitation: being relatively close family, being part of the expedition, or being someone that a member of these two groups really wanted to bring along. Because of this, the only extra family members who ended up coming were Helga's mother, sister, brother in-law, niece and nephew, who all happened to live in town. A motley handful of people, that they guessed to be the other members of the expedition crew, were sitting on the side of the aisle that was in theory to be mostly for Lalli's family. The ceremony itself went quite well, with the only thing that truly surprised them was the low number of people who actually seemed to be related to Lalli on the other side of the aisle. Just about everything else had turned out much better than they had feared. The Finnish outfits had turned out to actually be quite tasteful, and whatever had made Emil describe Lalli as "different" when he had told them about him had not disrupted the ceremony or been at any obvious risk at doing so.

What they had not been ready for was the reception. It had started with having to defend the wedding to Helga's family, despite the fact that they actually expected it to fall apart. They had to bear the introductions of the members of the expedition crew, which included two other alleged mages and Lalli's cousins, all of whom seemed utterly convinced that this ridiculous marriage was going to last. Helga and Torolf didn't last long before having no choice but to at least admit that they hadn't actually spoken Lalli yet, prompting his cousins to decide that the situation should be remedied to immediately. Torolf and Helga got all but pushed in Emil and Lalli's direction by Tuuri, Lalli's female cousin:  
-Lalli! Say hi to Emil's parents.  
Lalli literally greeted them and didn't say an extra word. He did it in Swedish, at least. They greeted him in return, and Torolf asked him how he was liking the reception so far.  
-Too many people talking to me. Emil said Sigrun would probably have a drink or two and start telling stories and not too many people would come to talk.  
Just as Emil was starting to ruffle his hair, his captain from the expedition appeared out of nowhere and slapped him on the back:  
-You could have just asked, buddy! Just barely married and he's already got you doing it! I'm getting going right away.  
She almost skipped to the table with the drinks. Mikkel, the big Dane who had been the crew's medic came to speak to Emil, but the Danish accent made them only able to understand Emil's side.  
-Well, you have to admit that it had a decent chance of happening without anybody asking her. And anything entertaining the guests is attention taken off Lalli… no, I didn't consider the children, but when did she ever… oh yeah, that time… yes, good idea.  
Mikkel went to stand by the Sigrun's side. Emil explained:  
-He's going to make sure the stories she tells remain… acceptable.

Sigrun was quickly gathering an audience. However, Torolf and Helga sensed that both Emil and Lalli had just given them a glimpse of what was going to cause their marriage to fall apart eventually. They couldn't help trying to find out more, while keeping their true motives under wraps.  
-May we ask why you want the guest's attention off him?  
Emil explained:  
-Some things overwhelm him faster than they do most people, and many of them tend to be a natural part of large gatherings.  
Both Helga and Torolf looked around:  
-This isn't exactly a large gathering.  
Lalli was the one to reply:  
-Yes, it is.  
They both made the connection at the same time. Östersund rather than Mora. The relatively small number of guests. Maybe even having it happen in a wooded rather than inside a building. This was going to be it, they realized. Emil was currently going along with whatever Lalli wanted out of love, but was certainly going to grow frustrated with it sooner or later. This was what he was going to get for getting married to another man while being so young and clueless. After that, they didn't need to know more, and neither of them could think of another question on the subject that wouldn't risk betraying their true thoughts.

By this point, the four of them were apparently the only people not listening to Sigrun's stories, or getting a translation from someone who knew both Icelandic and a Scandinavian language. Right around the time Torolf and Helga started paying attention to her, Sigrun slapped her forehead:  
-Wait, why am I boring you all with _that_? It's these two's special day, and most of you weren't there to see it all begin. I bet this is what you all actually want to hear about.  
What about that for luck? There would be embarrassment for sure, but it was worth it if they could find out about things to which Emil was most likely to not outright admit to, especially on his wedding day. They found out much more than they had bargained for, despite the handful of times Mikkel and Emil had kept Sigrun from telling more about a given event. They had heard Lalli protest a couple times too, but it had been only to Emil and apparently against blatant embellishment of events than the events that were being conveyed themselves. Near the end of the party, they found out another reason for the guest list to be so small. A small demonstration of magic, that had been explicitly set up so the people present that didn't believe in it wouldn't think who had started to do so recently had lost their minds. After seeing the demonstration, they realized that the moment the marriage would fall apart would probably entail more than a heartbreak.

In their vow to go along with what Emil wanted, they had missed the part of the project where he and Lalli would not only marry in Östersund, but live in town. In other words, both they and some of the female suitors that they were considering for Emil's second marriage ran into them on a regular basis. Other than that, as far as temporary sons-in-law went, Lalli wasn't too bad. The fact that he didn't want to see people more than strictly necessary to maintain a decent relationship with them and that he had converted Emil to that way of thinking to an extent more than made up for the fact that they were living quite close. Strangely enough, Lalli turned out to have figured out the game they were playing quite early and had told them so while Emil was out of earshot, but his response to it had boiled down to not making any more effort towards them than they were making towards him. There was no attempt to please them or make himself liked by them, but there was no active attempt to make their life harder either. Just honesty on where they stood with each other. And this, strangely enough, eventually caused them to reconsider some aspects of their attitude towards the marriage. After some debating, they realized that their current attitude would most certainly cause Emil to blame them when the marriage would fall apart, which would get in the way of supporting him when he would need it the most. They also realized that knowing Lalli better would help them figure out who among the young women they knew would be the most suitable for Emil. It took time, but finding out more about Lalli and his relationship with Emil turned helped them stand the situation a little better. It also had the beneficial side effect of giving them various things to put forward to Emil's future wife and her parents to show that this marriage was not a bad thing for him, and was preparing him well for the one that would last.

This last statement proved to be truer than they ever imagined a few weeks before the marriage's fifth anniversary, when Emil and Lalli showed up at their place one morning, wanting to tell them about an important decision they had just made. Was it what they had been waiting for? Honestly, they had gotten used to having Lalli around on a regular basis, and were going to miss him a little. But this had to happen, for Emil's own good and that of the family. They nonetheless braced themselves for the announcement:  
-We are going to adopt.


End file.
